Two Los Angeles police officers accused of leaking a photo of pop star Rihanna's bruised face after a fight with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown won't face charges, although they still may be fired, news reports said.

Three Chinese astronauts, including the first woman, returned to Earth after their manned spaceship successfully docked to another craft in orbit.
The Shenzhou 9 space capsule safely parachute landed about 10 a.m. Beijing time Friday in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, following a 13-day mission that marked a major stride in China's ambitious space program.

Gold is down more than 6 percent since late February, having dropped sharply from the year's highs after U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke held off signaling a further round of U.S. monetary easing in a key speech.

The U.S. and Israeli leaders will try to sort out their differences over what Washington fears could be an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites. With the U.S. presidential election just eight months away, Obama's Republican foes have been quick to paint him as tough on Israel and soft on Iran.

The storms raised fears that 2012 will be another bad year for tornadoes after 550 people died in the United States from them last year, the deadliest year in nearly a century, according to the Weather Service.

Shadid, 43, was on a reporting assignment in eastern Syria when he died, according to an obituary posted on the Times web site. It said Shadid was carried across the border into Turkey by Times photographer Tyler Hicks.

Syrian President Bashar Assad ordered a referendum for later this month on a new constitution that would allow political parties other than his ruling Baath Party as part of promised reforms, The Associated Press said.

The Fed revised December's industrial output to show a solid 1.0 percent increase instead of the previously reported 0.4 percent gain, pointing to underlying strength in the economy. Economists polled by Reuters had expected industrial production to increase 0.7 percent last month .

The moves puts the focus on Mark Fields, 50, who runs Ford's operations in North and South America, and Joe Hinrichs, 45, who runs the automaker's operations in Asia, as the leading internal candidates to succeed Mulally.

The announcement caps more than a year of chaotic negotiations among state and federal officials, and the banks, who have been accused of using robosigners and unlawful documentation to deal with a flood of foreclosures.

The trial, which is likely to shine a searching light on the adequacy of the bank's management and risk controls, could land Adoboli with a maximum 10-year jail sentence if convicted of the two counts of fraud and two of false accounting.

The White House rejected on Friday the latest proposal from Republicans in Congress on a payroll tax cut, saying its costs needed to be offset in a balanced away and not with budget cuts exempting the rich.